Summary of Rutger Bregman's Utopia for Realists

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 The past 200 years have seen a stupendous leap in the standard of living for billions of people around the world. In 2012, life expectancy in the most affluent countries surpassed that in the poorest country, Sierra Leone.
#2 The past two centuries have seen explosive growth both in population and prosperity worldwide. Per capita income is now ten times what it was in 1850. The average Italian is 15 times as wealthy as in 1880.
#3 The medieval dream of the Land of Plenty, known as Cockaigne, is becoming a reality today. We are living in an age of Biblical prophecies come true, with blind people being restored to sight, cripples who can walk, and the dead being brought back to life.
#4 The Land of Plenty is available to everyone, not just a select few. The number of people who have Internet access has jumped from 0. 4 percent in 1994 to 40. 4 percent in 2014. The number of people with cell phones has risen from 0. 5 percent in 1995 to 81. 6 percent in 2013.

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 01 avril 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669376248
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Rutger Bregman's Utopia for Realists
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5 Insights from Chapter 6 Insights from Chapter 7 Insights from Chapter 8 Insights from Chapter 9 Insights from Chapter 10
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The past 200 years have seen a stupendous leap in the standard of living for billions of people around the world. In 2012, life expectancy in the most affluent countries surpassed that in the poorest country, Sierra Leone.

#2

The past two centuries have seen explosive growth both in population and prosperity worldwide. Per capita income is now ten times what it was in 1850. The average Italian is 15 times as wealthy as in 1880.

#3

The medieval dream of the Land of Plenty, known as Cockaigne, is becoming a reality today. We are living in an age of Biblical prophecies come true, with blind people being restored to sight, cripples who can walk, and the dead being brought back to life.

#4

The Land of Plenty is available to everyone, not just a select few. The number of people who have Internet access has jumped from 0. 4 percent in 1994 to 40. 4 percent in 2014. The number of people with cell phones has risen from 0. 5 percent in 1995 to 81. 6 percent in 2013.

#5

The past decade has been the most peaceful in all of world history. The number of war casualties has plummeted 90 percent since 1946. The incidence of murder, robbery, and other forms of criminality is decreasing.

#6

The real crisis of our times is not that we don’t have it good, but that we can’t come up with anything better. We’ve buried utopia instead, and there’s no new dream to replace it because we can’t imagine a better world than the one we’ve got.

#7

The utopian Land of Plenty tells us all about what life was like in the Middle Ages. Grim. Or rather, that the lives of almost everyone almost everywhere have almost always been grim.

#8

We live in a world where the government is constantly patching up life in the present, and the market is free to do as it pleases. Meanwhile, the welfare state has begun focusing on the symptoms of our discontent rather than the causes.

#9

We have all become more anxious over the last decades, and we’re popping antidepressants like never before. We blame collective problems like unemployment, dissatisfaction, and depression on the individual.

#10

We must direct our minds to the future, and stop consuming our own discontent through polls and the relentlessly bad-news media. We must consider alternatives and form new collectives.

#11

We need a new map of the world that includes a distant, uncharted continent called Utopia. By this, I don’t mean the rigid blueprints that utopian fanatics try to shove down our throats with their theocracies or five-year plans.

#12

Utopias are dangerous when taken too seriously. They offer no ready-made answers, let alone solutions. They simply ask the right questions. They are for everyone living in the Land of Plenty, and they want to change things by imagining new utopias.